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Years ago, my HR department was asked to participate in a Myers
Briggs assessment. It’s amazing what you will do for a paycheck.
I couldn’t say no.

I am an INFJ.

One of our OD consultants approached me after the session and
asked if I would be willing to learn how to administer and
interpret the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. When I said no, she
told me it wasn’t an option.

I said, “How about we group people around the room by
astrological sign? I’m a Capricorn.”

Blood type would work, too. I am a B+ — like my attitude.

The OD consultant told me that it’s not funny to mock a valid way
of measuring and assessing individuals. And then she added,
“Information that helps us understand ourselves a little better
is meaningful and valuable.”

And I said, “That’s how cults get started.”

Needless to say, I never became a certified MBTI instructor. And
I want to tell you something: information that leads us to a
greater awareness and understanding of ourselves is powerful in
our own hands and dangerous in the hands of others. Especially
untrained and unskilled HR ladies and consultants who have no
background in Jungian psychology.

I worked with a Jungian therapist for two years. It’s a serious
and interesting field of study where practitioners are engaged in
ongoing training, learning and reading about the world around us.
It’s also a goofy field that is one step above the hyper
sexualized world of Freud. While there are fewer sexual
euphemisms, there’s a lot of spirituality involved. Lots of talk
about dreams. What I really appreciated was the focus on the
narrative.

But the whole point is that the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a
commoditized and simplified version of analysis that could take a
lifetime to understand. And your HR lady wants you to participate
in this assessment — or others — and make carer-related decisions
about your life without linking those results to valid
measurements of your knowledge, skills, or abilities.

You can and should say no to the Myers Briggs Type
Indicator at work. But you should always say yes to thinking
about your behaviors, intentions and desires in the privacy and
safety of a trained counselor’s office.